Night Swimming

Our friends Marine and Martin invited us to drive to some natural hotsprings on Sunday. It was a bit of an adventure because none of us actually knew the location of the pool we were trying to find. We drove down toward Vík again, the same beautiful drive south that we've been on before, and scouted out a few areas. Finally arriving at Skógafoss, we knew we'd gone too far.

At twilight, after hiking up to the top of the waterfall in disappointment over our fruitless search for the hotsprings, we drove down one last dirt road, looking for our spot. We had been told that we'd find a "new pool" by the road and that we'd have to hike half an hour toward the mountain to find the "old pool"--the natural hotspring at the base of the mountain. Martin's final instinct proved to be right and we found the entrance to the hike at dusk. Although it probably wasn't a good idea, we were determined to end the day in success and decided to walk in to find the pool. We took flashlights for when it would be fully dark on the way back out.

After about 15 minutes, on flat ground but with a little uphill toward the end, we arrived at an old cement pool beside a river in the mountain valley. It was completely secluded and mostly unkempt--we were thrilled to be there. Iceland doesn't have bears or other dangerous wild animals, and the proportion of axe murderers is relatively low, so we kept our horror-movie fear somewhat at bay. Still, it was scary enough out there that the experience seemed more fun at night, and the entire adventure registered as cinematic.

The water felt warm on the hands, but when we jumped in it turned out to be a lot colder than we'd expected. The fall air is pretty chilly, so we were hoping for a nice hot pool. After finding the source of heat, a skinny pipe delivering water that wasn't hot enough to keep the entire pool comfortable, we took turns cozying up to the one warm corner.

We stayed as long as we could stand it and got dressed again in the dark. Jeramy took two pictures before our camera ran out of batteries. The pool is called Seljavallalaug, up beyond Seljavellir, and the sign is mounted on a building with rustic changerooms. The pool is quite famous in tourism photos of Iceland because of its iconic setting--a bare pool in the middle of nowhere.

The metal staircase leads into the pool--the picture captures some of the aura of the evening. We hiked out in the dark. The stars were amazing--the milky way clearly visible above the mountain peaks.